Shuttler Anand in third round
Vancouver: India’s Anand Pawar reached the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the Canada Open Grand Prix tournament with a straight-game win over local shuttler Bobby Milroy here. The Indian thrashed the qualifier 21-12 21-11 on Tuesday to set up a clash with Chinese Taipei’s Kuei Chun Shih. The fourth seed had defeated Korea’s Kim Dong Hoon 21-17 21-9 in the opening round. Another Indian, Arvind Bhat, who had won the German Open Grand Prix Gold in March, had retired at 1-2 against Maxime Moreels of Belgium in the first round.
‘NSFs should be made accountable’
New Delhi: Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal says he is not against the autonomy of the National Sports Federations but wants them to be accountable. The MP from Assam said his ministry is considering to have a system in place to make NSFs accountable without compromising their autonomy. “let them enjoy their autonomy but at the same time they have to perform as per the expectations of the people of the country. Accountability must be there,” Sonowal told PTI-Bhasha in an interview. “Maintaining discipline and standards is must and let them have more democratic approach within the federation. There should be democratic set up and functioning. We have to have a check on it. We will be happy if they behave like this,” he said.
‘indian hockey needs home coaches ‘
Rajkot: Former hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay on Wednesday said that he was opposed to the import of foreign coaches in India as it was not helping the players.”The standard of Indian hockey is going down because of the foreign coaches as they are unaware of the strength and the weakness of Indian players,” Pillay said here. “Indian coaches can do much better than the foreign coaches, because Indian coaches know our players’ strength and weakness,” said the Olympian.”I have been telling (the authorities) to appoint Indian coaches since 2004 and I believe that Indian coaches are able to train Indian players but we should give them time to settle down,” Pillay said.
Ritu Rani to lead team in CWG
New Delhi: Hockey India (HI) on Wednesday announced its Senior Women Hockey team to be led by midfielder Ritu Rani for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, scheduled to take place at Glasgow from July 23 to August 3. Defender Deepika (126 caps) will be the vice-captain of the 16-member squad. During the selection trials conducted at NIS Patiala on June 28-29, the HI selectors — B P Govinda, Harbinder Singh, Surinder Kaur along with Director High Performance Roelant Oltmans, Chief Coach Neil Hawgood and Scientific Advisor Matthew Tredrea — shortlisted the side.The women’s team, which recently posted a great performance against Malaysia, will be taking on Canada in their first match on July 24, followed by matches against New Zealand on July 27, Trinidad and Tobago on July 28 and South Africa on July 30.
Pallikal Seeded 6th For CWG
New Delhi: India’s leading squash player Dipika Pallikal have been seeded sixth respectively for the singles competition at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games beginning July 23.The seeds for the five categories — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — were announced by the World Squash Federation on Tuesday.India has a good chance of winning its first squash medal at the Commonwealth Games in the presence of 10th-ranked Pallikal.Pallikal, the only Indian to break into the top-10, is set to make her Games debut. India’s best bet for a medal is in the doubles competition. The mixed doubles pair of Ghosal and Pallikal has already shown promise by winning the Tri-Nation title in Malaysia last month. Pallikal also won the doubles crown in Kuala lumpur alongside Chinappa.